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The Last Stand
The Last Stand is a "campaign" exclusive to Survival Mode. It has only one map called The Lighthouse. The goal is to survive as long as possible against both the clock and an endless horde of Infected. The campaign's tagline reflects the fact that all the Survivors will ultimately die. This is also the only free DLC for the Xbox 360 version. Last Stand takes place at a remote cliff-top lighthouse. Since this is a Survival mini-campaign, Valve was content to contextualize it with a purely nominal storyline: a road leading up to a chain-link fence and car with its headlamps still on are enough to suggest that the Survivors sought to escape to this remote area with perhaps an idea of signalling for help from the lighthouse. According to writer Chet, this campaign explains what would happen if the Survivors took a wrong turn and attempted to call for help from this location. The Last Stand is non-canonical as three of the four Survivors from Left 4 Dead appear in a chronologically later campaign: The Passing. Below is a survival gameplay of the campaign: # The Lighthouse Please note that the gameplay videos are on each campaign's info page and not on each map page. Strategy Light House Walkway Method * The horde is fought from the top of the lighthouse, i.e. the wraparound walk way. This gives the best line of sight and forces all of the Infected to climb up thereby slowing them down greatly. * Having at least one Survivor with a Hunting Rifle is highly recommended due to the available sight lines and the need to combat the constant threat of distant Smokers pulling Survivors off the walkway. * Assault rifles are highly recommended to engage all Infected (especially Tanks) from the moment they come into sight. * One player with an Auto Shotgun is a good idea to take out pouncing Hunters and to mop up any Infected that do manage to climb up onto the walkway at the top of the lighthouse. Having more than one shotgunner is ill-advised―shotguns do not have a long range capability. * Molotovs and Pipe Bombs are excellent force multipliers. * If an ammo run is needed, the best route is via the roof of the generator room since it requires less climbing and keeps players off the ground. * Time spent before the scenario kicks off bringing all of the gas cans and propane tanks up to the very top of the lighthouse is never wasted. Care is obviously needed to group these supplies in one known spot to reduce the risk of stray gunfire igniting them and thus obliterating the team. A sniper perched up on the walkway can throw these items down and use them opportunistically. As noted above and below, camping snipers make easy targets for Smokers so they must keep moving and scanning the middle distance. * Note that Smokers generally attack from three locations: from middle distances behind trees on the hills on the Survivors' left; the ground on the water front side; and the lower roof levels on the water front side. * Smokers set up on the hillside are extremely difficult to see whilst those on the seaward side are able to drag their victims so far away that rescue is often impossible. * The drawbacks to this strategy are twofold. Firstly, the walkway railings are fragile and can result in players falling off the walkway and thus becoming incapped by hanging at inopportune times. Secondly, players make excellent targets for Smokers who can almost effortlessly drag their victims off the light house and beyond any hope of rescue (especially when a Tank is in play). To avoid these pitfalls, walkway players must keep moving and scanning the middle distance so Smokers either cannot lock onto a target or are taken out before they can set up and attack. Moreover, when Tanks arrive, players should move down to a lower level of the roof as this will give clearer lines of fire and nullify the blind angles and deadly drops associated with the walkway. * It is absolutely imperative that team members communicate threats, actions and intentions! House Defense Method * Another good spot to defend from the horde is inside the house, at least three Survivors should use Auto shotguns. * The advantage to this tactic is that the Special Infected become way less effective because each Survivor is positioned in their own corner of the room. When a Hunter pounces someone he can be easily dispatched by a covering teammate as can a Smoker trying to drag a victim out, and a Boomer can only slime two Survivors at a time at most―they are basically standing unprotected open sight during their attack phases. * Gas cans should be stationed around the house and especially outside the front door to keep that way clear. All team members should have Pipe bombs to hand. * The Tanks die really quickly if shotguns are used at close range (refer the above point concerning a shotgun-heavy preference for this defense method)―and the House Defense Method brings Tanks into right in close. When a Tank arrives, everyone in the group concentrates their shotgun fire onto the Tank and he should be dead in seconds. General Pointers and Tips * Incapacitation is a killer! Players must do their best to avoid incapacitation as it can be quite difficult for a hard pressed teammate to revive a fallen comrade. It is a good idea heal slightly earlier than usual. * The point made earlier about all players communicating is worth emphasizing. * A glitch-based Jesus Place existed in this level that left a player untouchable by all opponents save for the Smokers. To use the place, a Survivor would go down the hill until they encountered two trees sprouting in front of a rock. By jumping between the trees and the rock, a player would become stuck in the space and usually taken beyond reach of Infected. Tanks also seem to die upon approaching this position. Even when grabbed by a Smoker, a character couldn't be dragged and therefore would not die. Note that only one character could occupy this position. This has now been patched, however. * The team needs to stay together, any sort of separation will easily make a very thought out plan of defense into a failure. Either the loner(s) will get killed or the other group members, so sticking together is essential, especially when the player(s) have reached the Silver Medal. Achievements (PC Only) Notes * Death Toll Chapter 3 features a "wrong turn" which visually fits this scenario. About halfway along the road to Riverside a road leads off to the right and ends in a padlocked gate guarding a fenced-in area similar to that featured in The Last Stand. However this is purely coincidental as the territory behind that fence in Death Toll (if it actually existed in the map) would belong to The Drains. No lake, sea or lighthouse could ever conceivably exist in that location and it is seen earlier in Chapter 2 from the other side of the fence which runs behind the parking area outside the train depot where Chapter 2's ending saferoom is located. ** Although in the Lighthouse, if you go to the chain-linked fence it is visible that there is a wide, clear space at the other side opposite the Lighthouse, this space almost looks exactly as the one seen before heading to the safe room at the end of The Drains. ** The Last Stand also re-uses many of Death Toll's aesthetics, including the style of the terrain, appearance of the sky and the ambient music during the setup phase of Survival mode, adding fuel to the speculation that the location is somehow connected to Riverside within the Left 4 Dead narrative (assuming that the lighthouse as a location even exists canonically). * This is the only campaign that will end in the death of the Survivors. ** The only other campaign which features the death of at least one Survivor is the appropriately named The Sacrifice DLC. However, only The Sacrifice can be classed as canon. * When seen from a distance, the lighthouse light appears to be lit but on moving closer it is shown to be unlit. * A serious glitch exists (the so-called "co-op glitch") whereby human players are stranded outside the chain link fence with no way of getting to the lighthouse. Although it is possible to find several locations along the fence that can be climbed as if they were ladders the opposite side remains inaccessible. The only way for a human player to get on the other side is by idling and letting a bot climb or teleport over the fence. It is believed that the climbable areas are unmarked climbing areas for the exclusive use of the Infected. * The "co-op glitch" gave rise to a popular supposition that The Last Stand was originally intended to be a mainstream campaign involving the Survivors finding their way over the fence and up to the lighthouse to signal for rescue. * A "Last Stand" is a loose journalistic and military colloquialism referring to a group of troops holding a defensive position against a much larger attacking enemy force with no hope of relief, of fleeing or receiving quarter. Written up after the fact, such scenarios become self-defining since the defenders are either completely annihilated or (at best) are represented by only a small handful of survivors. In-game, this is the situation facing the Survivors. * As noted above, it is possible that Valve's creative development team had this concept in mind as Death Toll's finale. Instead of ending up on the cutting room floor, the scenario's creative merits might have lead to it being redeployed as a DLC to maintain player interest after the game's market launch. * This is the only campaign with more than two words in its title. * A strange glitch can occur when a player spawns. A player might find they are seemingly leaning to the left as though incapacitated even though that person is standing up, can perform any action normally and appears normal to fellow team members. * During the final panels of The Sacrifice Comic Part 3, several soldiers (including Jeff and Annie) make a last stand at a structure that resembles either a lighthouse or a building with a searchlight. This could be an oblique reference to The Last Stand — particularly as all of the soldiers are eventually overwhelmed and killed by Infected. * It is the only campaign with one chapter. * As stated above, the Jesus Place glitch method is now patched, as Smokers, Hunters and Tanks can now find their way through. Even though the glitch is patched, it can still be useful, as Tanks still have a hard time finding their way through and can be easily killed before they could find their way in, so use this time to your advantage. * Graffiti warns subsequent survivors not to switch on the light and to turn around and leave as there is no escape. * This campaign and its map are not included in the Cold Stream DLC for Left 4 Dead 2. This makes it the only Left 4 Dead campaign to be omitted from the Left 4 Dead 2 port. See Also * The Lighthouse * Survival Mode ru:Последний рубеж Category:Campaigns Category:Downloadable Content Category:Last Stand Category:Left 4 Dead